AMC's Almost Total Recall

For want of a foolproof $20 part, a $3 million expense

The modern automobile engine is continually punished by extremes of heat, cold and vibration. Engineers consider such stresses in their designs, but some times they miscalculate. Just such a mistake appeared to be behind the Environmental Protection Agency's order last week that American Motors Corp. recall 270,000 of its 1976 cars-- all the autos it made that year except those for California, which have special pollution gear --plus 40,000 of its 1975 and 1976 Jeeps and mail trucks. The fault lay in a $20 pollution control system part, made for AMC by Cleveland's Eaton Corp., that earlier had passed EPA tests. After several months on the road, a brazed joint in the back-pressure sensor has been breaking and causing AMC's engines to emit 50% more oxides of nitrogen than the law allows.

EPA investigators were not surprised that AMC had a problem. In January the agency had recalled 640,000 Ford-made vehicles that used the same Eaton part.

"It's quite disturbing," said George Brown, AMC's chief of vehicle safety and emissions. "But we have a positive attitude around here. We go out and fix things and try to see that they don't happen again."

AMC was thus thrust down recall road, a path now traveled by all of Detroit's automakers at one time or another.

It is a slightly less expensive journey than it used to be: car owners may be notified by first-class mail instead of the registered letters that Government agencies required in the past. But in postage alone, AMC will spend close to $40,000. Other costs could push the total bill to $3 million, a real burden for long troubled AMC, which earned only $2.7 million -- peanuts for an auto manufacturer -- in the last quarter.

AMC now has until June 24 -- that is, 45 days from the date of the recall order -- work out a plan repairing or replacing the faulty part and reimbursing dealers for doing the work. Once notified, owners make an appointment and drive into any AMC dealer, who is obligated to make the fix free. AMC intends to have the dealers put in a stronger joint, and Brown estimates that the procedure should take 30 minutes to an hour.

Anywhere from 40% to 85% of AMC's owners have responded to past recalls; Ford's and GM's rates run from 70% to 85%. Generally, the newer the car, the higher the response rate, because new owners want feel that they are get everything they paid for. Also, the response to defects is usually higher than that to emission problems. Owners believe that pollution control system failures will somehow improve gas mileage and engine performance, though Brown asserts that that would not be the case with the Eaton part. "As far as we can tell," says he, "it has no noticeable effect on engine performance."

Since 1972, twelve million cars have been recalled for emission system failures, and many more for safety flaws.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last year ordered recalls of 12.8 million cars for safety defects -- 10.7 million of them U.S.-made and 2.1 million foreign. Brown detects "more vigilance" on the part of the EPA to enforce antipollution standards. Agency officials deny overzealousness, claiming that they are merely working under a program that has matured and is finally up to speed. Says Deputy Administrator Barbara Blum: "Recall is not a pleasant word. But as long as polluting cars continue threatening public health, recall is word upon." EPA will continue to utter and act upon.

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